traditional knowledge

American  

[truh-dish-uh-nuhl nahl-ij] / trəˈdɪʃ ə nəl ˈnɑl ɪdʒ /

noun

1. skills, knowledge, and practices that are passed down through generations, rather than being taught through official means or formal education, and which are often associated with specific cultural identities.

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Example Sentences

“China and the international community should respect traditional knowledge and local communities to make them ideal stewards to protect the Tibetan plateau.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025

“Land back means giving the land back to its original people with no strings attached. Let them provide their traditional knowledge to heal the land, the environment.”

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 14, 2025

According to Armstrong, settler-colonial efforts to systematically separate Indigenous peoples from their land and suppress traditional knowledge have obscured the role humans played in shaping the landscape.

From Science Daily • Dec. 6, 2024

The Blue Parks network promotes biodiversity and sustainable management in marine protected areas, and Kitasoo Xai’xais leaders have vowed to pursue those aims using traditional knowledge and the latest marine science.

From Science Magazine • May 1, 2024

Here the most eminent men have spent their lives, not in retailing traditional knowledge, as at school, but in extending the frontiers of science in all directions.

From Chips From A German Workshop, Vol. V. Miscellaneous Later Essays by Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)